Robert A. George's ruminations on politics, race, pop culture, sports, comic books & various other sundry temptations of the human condition. Yes, he writes for the New York Post, but the views here are solely his own.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Does Santorum Stand Pat -- or Evolve?

Pat Robertson warns Dover, PA: Voting out school board members who pushed teaching the "intelligent design" critique of evolution is inviting the wrath of God.

Great.

It's a three-fer: In one fell swoop, Robertson manages to 1) Attack a local community for exercising its own electoral rights; 2) Imply that local communities shouldn't determine what is the best curriculum for their children; 3) Demonstrate that his God is wrathful and destructive, rather than forgiving and loving.

2) This would be the same P.R. (what great initials) who recently wondered why the United States doesn't assassinate Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. He first suggested that he was misunderstand. Alas, the public rightly understood that "Take him out" was not Robertson simply mishearing the lyrics to that damn Franz Ferdinand song. He apologized. So, what does Keystone State Sen. Rick Santorum do? Stand by his Dover constituents -- or Robertson and the socially conservative he represents? Santorum has previously been favorably disposed to ID:

“intelligent design is a legitimate scientific theory that should be taught in science classes.” An I.D.-friendly amendment that he sponsored to the No Child Left Behind Act—requiring public schools to help students understand why evolution “generates so much continuing controversy”—was overwhelmingly approved in the Senate.

"I think I would probably tailor that a little more than what the president hassuggested," Santorum, the third-ranking Republican member of the U.S. Senate, told National Public Radio. "I'm not comfortable with intelligent design being taught in the science classroom."

And now Robertson "damns" a small Pennsylvania town over this issue -- at a time when Rick is facing disastrous poll numbers against Democratic challenger Bob Casey. If Robertson thought that his comments might ultimately be helpful to Santorum, well, let's just say that this was not the most intelligent design.UPDATE: John Cole appropriately links P.R to Friday's "Really-Stupid/Ignorant Comment" winner.